One instant's delay gave Signor Barricini time to recover his composure. He asked leave to see the papers. Without a word the prefect handed them over to him. Pushing his green spectacles up to his forehead, he looked through them with a somewhat indifferent air, while Colomba watched him with the eyes of a tigress who sees a buck drawing near to the lair where she had hidden her cubs.
"Well," said Signor Barricini, as he pulled down his spectacles and returned the documents, "knowing the late colonel's kind heart, Tomaso thought--most likely he thought--that the colonel would change his mind about the notice. As a matter of fact, Bianchi is still at the mill, so--"
"It was I," said Colomba, and there was scorn in her voice, "who left him there. My father was dead, and situated as I was, I was obliged to treat my brother's dependents with consideration."
"Yet," quoth the prefect, "this man Tomaso acknowledges that he wrote the letter. That much is clear."
"The thing that is clear to me," broke in Orso, "is that there is some vile infamy underneath this whole business."
"I have to contradict another assertion made by these gentlemen," said Colomba.
She threw open the door into the kitchen and instantly Brandolaccio, the licentiate in theology, and Brusco, the dog, marched into the room. The two bandits were unarmed--apparently, at all events; they wore their cartridge belts, but the pistols, which are their necessary complement, were absent. As they entered the room they doffed their caps respectfully.
The effect produced by their sudden appearance may be conceived. The mayor almost fell backward. His sons threw themselves boldly in front of him, each one feeling for his dagger in his coat pocket. The prefect made a step toward the door, and Orso, seizing Brandolaccio by the collar, shouted:
"What have you come here for, you villain?"
"This is a trap!" cried the mayor, trying to get the door open. But, by the bandits' orders, as was afterward discovered, Saveria had locked it on the outside.
"Good people," said Brandolaccio, "don't be afraid of me. I'm not such a devil as I look. We mean no harm at all. Signor Prefetto, I'm your very humble servant. Gently, lieutenant! You're strangling me! We're here as witnesses! Now then, Padre, speak up! Your tongue's glib enough!"
"Signor Prefetto," quoth the licentiate, "I have not the honour of being known to you. My name is Giocanto Castriconi, better known as the Padre. Aha, it's coming back to you! The signorina here, whom I have not the pleasure of knowing either, has sent to ask me to supply some information about a fellow of the name of Tomaso Bianchi, with whom I chanced to be shut up, about three weeks ago, in the prison at Bastia. This is what I have to tell you."
"Spare yourself the trouble," said the prefect. "I can not listen to anything from such a man as you. Signor della Rebbia, I am willing to believe you have had nothing to do with this detestable plot. But are you master in your own house? Will you have the door opened? Your sister may have to give an account of the strange relations in which she lives with a set of bandits."
"Signor Prefetto!" cried Colomba, "I beseech you to listen to what this man has to say! You are here to do justice to everybody, and it is your duty to search out the truth. Speak, Giocanto Castriconi!"
"Don't listen to him," chorused the three Barricini.
"If everybody talks at once," remarked the bandit, with a smile, "nobody can contrive to hear what anybody says. Well, in the prison at Bastia I had as my companion--not as my friend--this very man, Tomaso.
He received frequent visits from Signor Orlanduccio."
"You lie!" shouted the two brothers together.
"Two negatives make an affirmative," pursued Castriconi coolly.
"Tomaso had money, he ate and drank of the best. I have always been fond of good cheer (that's the least of my failings), and in spite of my repugnance to rubbing shoulders with such a wretch, I let myself be tempted, several times over, into dining with him. Out of gratitude, I proposed he should escape with me. A young person--to whom I had shown some kindness--had provided me with the necessary means. I don't intend to compromise anybody. Tomaso refused my offer, telling me he was certain to be all right, as lawyer Barricini had spoken to all the judges for him, and he was sure to get out of prison with a character as white as snow, and with money in his pocket, too. As for me, I thought it better to get into the fresh air. /Dixi/."
"Everything that fellow has said is a heap of lies," reiterated Orlanduccio stoutly. "If we were in the open country, and each of us had his gun, he wouldn't talk in that way."
"Here's a pretty folly!" cried Brandolaccio. "Don't you quarrel with the Padre, Orlanduccio!"
"Will you be good enough to allow me to leave this room, Signor della Rebbia," said the prefect, and he stamped his foot in his impatience.
"Saveria! Saveria!" shouted Orso, "open the door, in the devil's name!"
"One moment," said Brandolaccio. "We have to slip away first, on our side. Signor Prefetto, the custom, when people meet in the house of a mutual friend, is to allow each other half an hour's law, after departure."
The prefect cast a scornful glance at him.
"Your servant, signorina, and gentlemen all!" said Brandolaccio. Then stretching out his arm, "Hi, Brusco," he cried to his dog, "jump for the Signor Prefetto!"
The dog jumped; the bandits swiftly snatched up their arms in the kitchen, fled across the garden, and at a shrill whistle the door of the room flew open as though by magic.
"Signor Barricini," said Orso, and suppressed fury vibrated in his voice, "I hold you to be a forger! This very day I shall charge you before the public prosecutor with forgery and complicity with Bianchi.
I may perhaps have a still more terrible accusation to bring against you!"
